Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1887-04-27
AN AMERICAN GIRL
WHO MADE A PARIS LAWYER DANCE
TO A LIVELY TUNE.

The Gifts of His Muse Lavished Upon
His Fair Client--A Big Price to Pay
for Poetic Correspondence-The Gil
max.
An American girl has set all the tongues
wagging with the repetition of the story
of her adventure with Paris lawyer. AS
the story has gone from one club to an
other about the city her wealth has grown
to immense proportions and her beauty to
the excellence of poetic idealism. She is
probably not rs rich as her admirers pro-
TESS to believe, but she is rich enough to
have law suits; if it were not for that the
story might not exist. And as to her
beauty, it has been all sufficient to capti-
vate many Frenchman, and among the
crowd of devOtees was, until recently her
counsel.
This learned doctor of the laws, under
the inspiration of his fair clients presence,
became poet. 1t is not certainly known
that he ever practiced verse before meet
ing her, but if he had not he speedily
acquainted himself with the rules of
prosody, with classic forms, with the
works of amorous authors, and then
plunged headlong into Alexandrines, hex
ameters, pentameters, trochalc-spondaic,
archaic and all the other aics known to
ancient and modern poetry. The gifts of
his muse he lavished upon his American
client. In the lyric enthusiasm of his pas
sion he consigned the rhythms to stamped
paper. His attentions were offensive to
the young lady from the start, and she
was not at all backward in signifying that
to her counsel, but he persisted in his Ge
votion and in it's passionate manifesto
tions. Twas all in vain; he could make
no impression of Il tender character upon
the obdurate American heart. Then he
gave it up discouraged and felt somewhat
of revolt from his recent madness.
MAKING A LAWYER DANCE.
In this frame of mind it occurred to him
that those verses would be much better in
his hands than in the possession of one
who had attained violent dislike to him.
The more he thought about it the more
desirable it seemed to rescue those bits of
stamped paper from the hands of the dis
dainful belle. He made overtures for
their return. The young lady then took
q strong fancy to them and declined to
give them up. The lawyer getting ner
vOus attempted direct negotiations. She
was stubborn, but in the course of the
proceedings she came to his office to close
up affairs of her own, and while there the
counsel renewed his appeals for the poetic
correspondence. His antagonist was per-
suaded to name O price for the letters.
She modestly set the figure at 10, 900 louis.
1t was appalling; could not be thought of;
ma m selle must relent.
She did relent to the extent of receiving
some amusement and entertainment from
the lawyer for the verses. She would re-
quire but little. He eagerly begged to
know what the amusement should be.
She told him she was inexpressibly desir
Gus of seeing him dance. But not here!
Oh, yes, right here, in the office before the
clerks if they should choose to look on.
Horrible 1t was worse than the canni-
balism said to be practiced by the native
American savages. But it cost less On the
whole than 10000 louis. So the poor
lawyer danced. For fully five minutes
she kept him hopping, waltzing, shutting
and kicking. The clerks were scandalized
and the lady vastly amused. When she
had laughed sufficiently the attorney
humbly asked for the verses. Oh, no!
not yet; the bill was not complete. A
dance worth 10000 louis Not at all. 1t
would now be the pleasure of the fair tor
turer to hear the lawyer sing. The worm
will turn, and this was the climax of in
dignity. The attorney would dance, but
he would not descend to singing for any
money. The result was that the verses
were surrendered in exchange for check
for 10000 louis, and the cruel American
withdrew. Cor. Globe-Democrat